The Hague court has ruled against China.
Basically said you do not own the ocean.

yes I do
no you don't
yes I do

International law once only recognised "the three mile limit" on ocean based territorial claims. This changed when Iceland demanded that British fishing boats should not come within 200 miles of Iceland's coasts, which started the "Cod War." The new international standard became a 200 mile "Exclusive Economic Zone" from any nations coast, with presumably close coastal neighbours dividing ocean claims down the middle.

China is now going well beyond this by claiming an entire oceon well beyond it's national boundaries as it's sovereign territory. If other nations do the same, the fun will really begin. We could see all sorts of new territorial claims by competing powers all over the earth. Italy could claim the entire Mediterranean Sea.

This is an extremely dangerous situation. It is imperative that the belligerent nation should be prevented from succeeding in it's illegal territorial ambitions. This is exactly the same situation that has transpired previously in history where a new power military seeks territorial gain at he expense of it's weaker neighbours. Those days are supposed to be over. But China is now emulating Imperial Germany, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan.

Other posters on this topic have noted the similarity between Nazi Germany and China today. Nazi Germany was a socialist country like China is today. Both tolerated and even encouraged the private sector of their economy. Both are expansionist. Both extremely racist. The question is now, should the free world stand up to this new Nazi state? Or will the appeasers win again and encourage more territorial expansion by Nazi China?

The 200NM limit is the resource protected area and the territorial
limit is 12 Nautical Mile I believe.
It was increased from 3 to 12 because of artillery ranges at the time.

I think China made a mistake when they extended their 9 dash line
into Indonesian waters. I believe that is where troubles will begin.

Just as long as they leave Alexander Downer's oil zone inside East Timor artillery range. Does China's head-lock on Oz bank debt mean Canberra is within Beijing's protection ?

Yes Nick as the saying goes if you owe the bank a million dollars
you are in trouble, if you owe the bank a billion dollars the bank is in trouble !